Guilty On All Counts In Jordan Murder

Prosecution Will Ask For Death Penalty For Green

LUMBERTON, N.C. — The prosecutor in the James Jordan murder case had labeled the defense team's efforts a "Picasso defense -- throw it against the canvas and see what sticks."

On Thursday, a jury passing judgment on defendant Daniel Andre Green returned a verdict indicating that nothing had stuck.

Green, 21, was found guilty of killing the father of the world's most popular athlete, Michael Jordan.

In defending their client, Green's attorneys tried several tactics, from the standard to the outrageous.

They attacked the state's key witness as an opportunistic thug. They accused investigators of a shoddy and "selective" investigation. They even suggested that the father of the Bulls superstar had faked his own death.

But, following nearly nine weeks of testimony, jurors took just 4 1/2 hours over two days to dismiss the myriad defense theories and find Green guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the July 23, 1993, slaying.

Green shook his head when he heard the verdict but otherwise showed little emotion. His mother, Elizabeth Ann Green, shuddered and dabbed tears from her eyes.

Just a day earlier, Green told the courtroom that the state's case was so weak that he believed the prosecutor was trying to force a mistrial. As he was led to a squad car after hearing the verdict, Green told reporters he didn't know why jurors found him guilty.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Green, who has converted to the Muslim faith and goes by the name Lord Dannayaal As-Saddiq Al-Amin Salaam U'allah. "It doesn't matter, does it? This is Robeson County. What would you expect in this county?"

Jordan's family declined to comment on the verdict. It has not attended the trial except for an appearance by Larry Jordan, Michael's older brother, who testified briefly.

Earlier Thursday, before the trial's outcome was known, Michael Jordan, asked if he had been following the case closely, said, "No, not at all."

And he said, "I don't think (the verdict) will bother me much."

Bulls coach Phil Jackson added: "When the trial originally started, we talked about it and he (Jordan) said he's not paying attention to it, and that it's something he's not going to focus on, even though it's been brought to his mind and his conscience just through the exposure from the media.

"Michael's put to rest a lot of that, and I think the news about it will be observed by him. But I don't think it will make any difference."

Jurors were forbidden from discussing the verdict because they still must determine Green's sentence. A sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, and the prosecutor, Robeson County District Atty. Johnson Britt, said he will seek the death penalty.

"I feel good," said Britt, who risked a mistrial Wednesday when he referred to Green's decision not to testify on his own behalf in closing arguments. "Their verdict speaks the truth."

Britt said he believed the testimony of Green's co-defendant, Larry Martin Demery, played a "big role" in the jury's decision despite defense claims that Demery was a habitual criminal and liar who alone killed Jordan and then blamed Green to win a more lenient sentence.

Demery, 20, pleaded guilty last year and agreed to testify against Green, a childhood friend. He has not yet been sentenced for Jordan's murder and could face the death penalty.

After the verdict, defense attorney Woodberry Bowen said Green was "disappointed, shocked and surprised" by the verdict.

"But he's a man, and we're going on from here," said Bowen, who would not say whether he would appeal.

Green's attorneys had argued that he was at a party when Jordan was murdered and later helped Demery dispose of the body as a favor to his friend.

Demery's testimony was a crucial link to the state's case because the other evidence against Green -- from a home video showing him modeling Jordan's jewelry and eyeglasses to records showing that Green used Jordan's cellular phone -- was circumstantial.

Britt speculated that another factor in the jury's verdict may have been an explosive comment by Demery saying that Green wore a pair of Jordan's stolen gray pants to court.

"It was something the jury picked up on," Britt said. "If you were there when the statement was made, they looked at it. Then the very next day, when he came back to court, he's wearing a brand new suit. . . . He never wore a gray suit again."

In Demery's testimony, he told jurors he and Green began a crime spree in July 1993 that included robbing tourists at a motel and sticking up and shooting an elderly store clerk. In the early morning hours of July 23, they tried unsuccessfully to rob tourists at a motel before spotting Jordan's car, a $47,000 red Lexus, parked alongside a road.